Using Incentives To Lure People Out Of Cars

In a suburban jurisdiction where cars and growth have always gone together, Fairfax County, VA wants to offer incentives to the residents and workers in the planned MetroWest transit-oriented development at the Vienna Metro station to not even own a car, let alone drive one.From high-priced parking spaces to cash rewards for riding Metro, a consultant laid out a series of carrots and sticks for developer Pulte Homes to reduce by almost half the number of car trips that otherwise would be generated by 13 residential and office towers planned next to the Metro station.If the county approves the strategies, Fairfax's controversial experiment with the sort of dense, transit-oriented development that is popular inside Washington’s Beltway would become a laboratory for a movement in the fight against sprawl and traffic as well as a blueprint for the county's future of urban-style growth that rises up rather than out.